The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match up.

<span style=”font-size: large;”>“Oh, what a tangled web we weave…when first we practice to deceive.” -Sir Walter Scott, Marmion

<br /> <span style=”font-size: large;”>“People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a hunt.” ― Otto Von Bismark

<br /> <span style=”font-size: large;”>“There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.” – Walter Lippmann

This week’s winner, Joshuapundit’s Senate Intel Committee: Benghazi Was Preventable,Al Qaeda Was Involved, And The White House Knew It is my analysis of the long delayed Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Benghazi debacle. Here’s a slice:<br /> <br /> The bi-partisan Senate Intelligence Committee finally issued its long-delayed report on the Benghazi attack, and based on what it said, it’s pretty understandable why some of the Democrats on the committee strung things out as long as they could and fought over the wording. But some things simply give off too foul a stench for any perfume to make a difference.

The committee’s minority Republicans criticized the White House for obstructing the report, which the committee had wanted to complete much earlier, and openly accused Patrick Kennedy, U.S. undersecretary of State for Management of shielding the Obama administration from Congressional oversight.

Of course, Kennedy was also concentrating on covering his own behind. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who normally votes with the Democrats an dis the very epitome of bi-partisanship angrily made a point of saying that Kennedy “failed to ensure that a facility he personally approved in December 2011 had the necessary security to match the heightened threat environment.”

The committee’s report said that Benghazi was entirely preventable, and that the State Department failed to increase security at the Benghazi consulate in spite numerous warnings. As I’ve mentioned on these pages before,even the Brits and the International Red Cross had pulled their people out because Benghazi, thanks to President Obama’s timely intervention had become a major headquarters for al-Qaeda and other Islamists. Anyone who knows anything about Ansar al Shariah and its connections to al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) understood that a long time ago.

The report states, unequivocally: “Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks.”

The very fact that mortars and other heavy weapons were used points to long time planning. A mortar isn’t like a Kalishnikov. It takes training, and it takes time to scope out ranges and angles of fire.

“In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi.”

Another thing that came out is that the entire ‘protest over a video’ narrative pushed by the president, Mrs. Clinton, Jay Carney, Susan Rice and goodness knows how many others was an outright lie…and just like ObamaCare, they lied knowingly, although the report doesn’t put it in such blunt terms.

What we were told – conveniently after the 2012 elections- is that the original fairy tales about the video and a spontaneous protest occurred because the situation ‘was developing.’

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (SC) said that “The FBI confirmed to me that when they interviewed the survivors on the 15th the 16th and the 17th [of September], not one person ever mentioned anything other than a terrorist attack. No one mentioned a protest outside the consulate.”

“So, how could the Obama administration come up with a protest story if everybody on the ground during the attack said it was a terrorist attack and there was no protest?” he asked.

I was torn on this one..I honestly like Wiliamson’s piece a lot more personally, but while the totals were the same Neo Neocon got more individual votes among the Council, and it’s a really nice piece, so I’m calling it that way,

See you next week! Don’t forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week’s Watcher’s Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in…don’t you dare miss it. And don’t forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Tom is a US Navy Veteran, owns an Insurance Agency and is currently an IT Manager for a Virginia Distributor. He has been published in American Thinker, currently writes for the Richmond Examiner as well as Virginia Right! Blog.Tom lives in Hanover County, Va and is involved in politics at every level and is a Recovering Republican who has finally had enough of the War on Conservatives in progress with the Leadership of the GOP on a National Level.